Alex squelched a grin. He certainly did know. “Why yes, I do,” he said.
Aaron narrowed his eyes. “How?” he said, suspicious.
“You have to sing a song to take away the magic,” said Alex, clearly delighted.
“What?” cried Aaron. “I can’t do that.”
“You have to. That’s the only way you can get it to stop.”
Samheed and Lani began to chuckle, and Sky looked on, eyes filled with merriment.
“Well, then, you do it,” said Aaron. “I—I don’t know how. I mean I wish I could sing. But I’ve never done it, actually.”
“You may as well learn,” said Alex. “Besides,” he lied, “only you can stop the magic since you’re the one who made it alive in the first place.”
Sky almost called Alex out on the lie, but it was so entertaining to watch Aaron squirm that she held back.
Aaron gave Sky a pleading look. “Are you sure you can’t attach the fabric when it’s moving?”
Sky shook her head. “Nope. Sorry,” she said.
Aaron glanced at Lani and Samheed. He knew he wouldn’t get any help from them. Finally he sighed and gave up. “Fine. What do I have to sing?”
Alex wrote down the lines to Ol’ Tater’s song, changing a few words to make the spell work for the wing. He handed the spell to Aaron and then hummed the tune for him. Alex was slightly off-key, but it was the best he could do.
Aaron read the chant. “Are you serious? This is absolutely ridiculous,” he said. “Who designed this spell?”
“Mr. Today, I think.” Alex shrugged. “It’s the only way to fix it.”
“Well, it’s a lot easier to make things come alive,” muttered Aaron.
“And you’re awfully good at that for having no training,” said Alex, “so I’m sure you’ll be great at this, too.”
Aaron didn’t answer. He opened his mouth, and then he closed it again and sighed. He cleared his throat. He shuffled his feet, and held the paper at different distances from his face to find what would feel most comfortable. Then he looked at the wing moving around on the table. He closed his eyes and shook his head.
The others watched silently, exchanging mischievous glances.
Finally Aaron opened his mouth again and croaked out the words:
Dragon wing, dragon wing,
Too much sadness, no repeats.
I am sorry, more than sorry,
But it’s time for you to sleep.
The wing ceased to move. And the room exploded in laughter and applause for Aaron’s terrible singing.
Aaron was surprised and confused by the outburst, and he felt his cheeks grow warm. He looked from one face to the next, at first thinking he was being ridiculed, and it reminded him of what things were like when he had been thrown out of the university long ago. But slowly it began to dawn on him that the people in this room were not acting mean-spirited. They were just plain spirited. And they had played a trick—no, not a trick, a joke—on Aaron.
The former high priest wasn’t 100 percent sure what the joke was, but instead of yelling at them as he initially wanted to do, he sought out Sky to make sure this was supposed to be funny.
Sky smiled warmly at him. “It’s okay,” she mouthed.
Aaron glanced at his brother, who was laughing and coming toward him.
“This is a joke on me,” Aaron said.
“It sure is,” said Alex.
One corner of Aaron’s mouth turned upward as Alex slapped him on the back. Aaron risked a glance at Lani, and then at Samheed, who wasn’t sneering.
“You’re a pretty good sport,” Samheed said. “I’ll give you that.”
Aaron laughed a little. “Thanks,” he said. “And the song worked. Maybe I’ll take singing lessons since I’m so good at it.”
The friends howled in laughter, and encouraged him to do so.
Aaron smiled. He still didn’t know precisely what he’d done that was so funny, but he was enjoying this new feeling inside him—the feeling that he was not only useful, but also that he was finally a part of something good in Artimé.
Preparing to Fly
With such a competent group of mages working on the task, the five sets of wings were assembled, tested, and covered in canvas in a matter of days. All that was left to do was to line them with flower petals and scales before the rest of the magic would be added.
Sky, Samheed, and Aaron were the most skilled at attaching the delicate petals and scales without damaging them. Once they finished each wing, Alex used the preserve spell on it, then added a shimmer spell he’d invented to make the wings as beautiful and iridescent as the bodies of the dragons. With a few final touches, the wings were perfect—lithe and beautiful and just the right dimensions.
At first Alex wasn’t sure how he was going to attach the wings to the dragons, but he had a few ideas. He asked Samheed to make up a new variation on scatterclips and stickyclips, called superclips, a permanent spell that would attach one thing to another thing without harming either one of them. But it was troublesome trying to get the wings to seal completely to anything, and it left the base joint stiff and unwieldy, so they gave up on that idea.
Lani came up with a melding spell by using a bit of soft eraser from Ms. Octavia’s cupboard as a component. She stretched and kneaded the eraser into a wonderfully pliable material, then instilled magic in it that would meld the wings to the dragon, making them appear continuous and leaving them perfectly flexible.
Alex tested Lani’s spell by melding a flowerpot to a large rock outside and moving it this way and that. Then he fired all sorts of elemental spells at it to make sure it could withstand fire, storms, salt water, heavy winds, and anything else he could think of that the dragons might come in contact with. When he was satisfied with the results, he asked Lani to make up a large batch of melding components for him to bring along to the Island of Dragons. Finally they were ready to test out a pair of wings to see if they would really work.
“Do you want to test it?” Alex asked Aaron.
“Me?” asked Aaron nervously. “Oh, no thank you. I’m—I’m just fine here on the ground. And besides, I have a cooking lesson in the kitchen to get to.”
Lani jumped up. “I’ll do it.”
“Sorry,” said Alex. “You’re not heavy enough. We have to simulate a real dragon.”
“Drat!” said Lani, sitting back down. “Foiled again. I never get to do anything fun.”
“I won’t remind you about driving the Quillitary vehicle,” said Alex.
“We agreed to never discuss that again, remember?” said Lani sweetly.
Samheed rolled his eyes and groaned. “Fine. I’ll do it,” he said.
“Thank you,” said Alex.
They went out onto the lawn with one pair of wings. Alex instructed Samheed to take his shirt off so the wings could adhere to Samheed’s back. Samheed shucked off his shirt, and Alex melded the wings to him.
“That feels really weird,” Samheed said. He shrugged his shoulders a few times.
“Does it hurt?” asked Alex. “Walk around a bit.”
“No, it doesn’t hurt. They’re not even all that heavy.” Samheed walked around and the wings, still folded, moved naturally with his stride. “It sort of feels like I have two extra arms.”
“Can you move them?” asked Alex. “Think about flying—they should be intuitive to you, at least a little.”
Samheed rotated his shoulders, experimenting with his new appendages and thinking about flying. After a minute he figured out the muscles he needed to move in order to make the wings unfold. He concentrated and flapped the wings in an awkward, jerky movement as he walked around. After several minutes, his motions grew smoother.
“Good,” said Alex. “Now take a running leap and start flying.”
“Yes, boss.” Samheed did as he was instructed. He ran toward the jungle as fast as he could, wings flapping, and jumped into the air.
He soared straight up two or three yards, his wi
ngs flapping wildly. Then he faltered and crashed to the ground.
“Ouch,” Samheed said. He spit grass from his mouth and pushed himself to his feet.
Alex frowned. “What did you do wrong?” he asked.
Samheed looked at Alex. “How should I know? You’re the head mage.” He noticed a grass stain on his knee and tried to wipe it clean.
Lani stood quietly, arms folded, and then she brought one hand to her chin as she studied Samheed. She tilted her head slightly, watching the wings move as he walked around. Samheed started running again, soared up into the air like before, and then spiraled down to the ground in another crash landing. “Oof,” he said.
Samheed lay there for a minute, winded, then rolled to his side and got up again. “You know, I’m not sure how many more times I want to do this,” he said.
Alex shook his head. “You’re flapping your wings. I don’t know why they won’t keep you up, unless they’re just not strong enough. In which case we’re in trouble.”
“They’re definitely strong enough,” said Lani. “I did all the equations. That’s not the problem.” She continued to study Samheed, and then a thought struck her, and she began digging around in her component vest pockets.
After a moment Samheed started running again.
“Wait!” hollered Lani. “Don’t try just yet.” She pulled an origami fire-breathing dragon from her pocket and looked at it.
Samheed slowed, and both he and Alex turned to Lani. “What is it?” asked Alex. “Did you think of something?”
“Remember when we created these?” Lani said, holding up the origami dragon.
Alex nodded. “What about them?” He and Samheed walked over to where Lani was standing.
“Do you remember what happened when we tested them out?”
Samheed took the dragon and looked at it. “No. What happened?”
“Oh!” said Alex. “We had to give them eyes.”
“Yes,” said Lani.
“But Samheed already has eyes.”
“Right, but then we had to tell it where to go,” Lani said. “We had to give it directions.”
Alex grimaced. “Of course. How are we possibly still alive after being so stupid?” He looked at Samheed. “You have to tell the wings where you want to go.”
“Yeah, I picked up on that,” said Samheed, shaking his head and walking away.
“We’re nothing without you,” Alex said to Lani as Samheed started running once more.
“It’s true, I know,” said Lani.
Samheed jumped into the air, shouting, “To the jungle!” And this time, the wings flapped and Samheed began flying forward instead of straight up. He hovered about ten feet off the ground, then gained altitude when he figured out how to pump his wings harder.
The scales caught the light, and the wings shimmered as Samheed worked them up and down. The ride was a bit jerky at first, but then it smoothed out into a beautiful, fluid motion, like the way Claire Morning conducted musicians.
Alex and Lani stood side by side and watched as Samheed flew toward the jungle with the wind rippling through his hair and a huge grin on his face. A few people on the lawn paused in their activities to watch as well.
“It’s working great,” said Alex.
Lani nodded. “I wonder how he’ll land.”
“Hmm,” said Alex. “Good question. I hope he doesn’t fall from that height.”
“That would be tragic,” Lani agreed. “Maybe we should get Simber out here.” They couldn’t take their eyes off Samheed.
“Nah,” said Alex after a moment. “He’ll be fine.”
As Samheed neared the jungle, he began to lean to one side, making a wide turn. Soon he was flying toward Alex and Lani. He held his arms bent in front of him and moved his shoulders to keep the wings flapping.
“How am I supposed to land?” Samheed screeched when he drew near to Alex and Lani.
“Slow down your flapping!” Alex called out, though he had no idea if that would work.
Samheed slowed his movements and he lost altitude.
“That’s working!” shouted Lani.
In fits and starts, Samheed dropped lower in the air, sometimes gut-wrenchingly fast, other times gently, as if he was starting to get the hang of it. He leaned again to curve around, stretching the wings out and soaring slowly, and then, narrowly missing his friends, he neared the ground, folded in his wings, and crash-landed a third time.
After he rolled to a stop, he looked at Alex. “Well, they work. I’m not so sure I’m the right person to have wings, but I imagine with a little practice, the water dragons will pick up the necessary skills better than I did.”
“Not to mention,” said Lani, “they’ll likely land in the water, which is a bit softer than the ground.” She reached out and helped Samheed to his feet, then planted a kiss on his cheek. “I’m glad you’re not hurt.”
“Had enough?” asked Alex.
“Definitely,” said Samheed. “Get these things off me.”
He turned around, and Alex released the meld spell that held the wings to Samheed’s back. With a squeak and a whoosh, the wings’ suction released, and Alex and Lani each pulled one off.
“Aaron really did a good job with these, you know,” Lani said.
“Yes. He’s surprisingly good at a lot of things,” added Samheed generously. “He’s all right.”
Alex nodded. It was true, and he was genuinely proud of Aaron, even if his natural ability was annoying at times. Alex was going to miss him. As the three friends walked back to the mansion and the regular activities on the lawn resumed, he grew melancholy. The wings were ready. “I guess Aaron and I will leave in the morning, then,” he said. “We’ll stop at the Island of Dragons to attach the wings, and then I’ll deliver him to the Island of Shipwrecks.”
Samheed didn’t say anything, but Lani placed her hand on Alex’s shoulder as they walked inside the mansion together, each of them with a dragon wing tucked under one arm. “It’s probably for the best,” Lani said. “It seems like he was really happy there.”
Alex nodded. “I know,” he said, feeling almost miserable about it. He and Lani put the wings in Ms. Octavia’s classroom, and then Alex went to the kitchen to find Aaron and tell him he could finally go home.
When he walked into the bustling kitchen unnoticed, Alex observed the food designers discussing and admiring their beautiful presentations. He found his sisters and Crow by the tube delivering food and his brother wearing an apron and chef’s hat, knife poised as he listened carefully to what the head chef of Artimé was explaining.
Alex watched as Aaron painstakingly perfected a recipe, and then he gazed at his sisters, absorbed in their task of placing the beautiful food creations into the delivery tube. It was a rare moment, all four Stowe siblings in the same room. And one that wouldn’t happen again once Aaron was gone.
Alex felt a certain heaviness descend upon his shoulders and a loneliness rise to his throat, and instead of embracing the familial moment, he turned away, overwhelmed by it. With his head bowed, he stumbled past the dining room to the entryway, past Simber and up the stairs to the once secret hallway, past the doorways to the last one on the left, where he went in. He sat down at his desk and lowered his head, resting it on his folded arms.
A few moments later, he got up, sent a message to Aaron’s blackboard telling him they would leave the next day, and entered his private quarters to pack.
Warning Signs and Secret Good-byes
Early the next morning Alex found Simber in his usual spot by the front door to the mansion. Alex beckoned to the cheetah to go outside with him and take a walk. The cat followed the mage out the door, and the two strolled together along the shore.
“I had thought you could take Aaron and me to the Island of Dragons and then on to the Island of Shipwrecks,” Alex said. “I would have liked that, but Aaron has requested we bring some supplies with us—mainly some fresh soil so he and the scientists can get some plants growing o
utside now that the storms are gone. I want to give them quite a lot since we have plenty to spare. But I don’t think we’ll be able to fit all the sacks of soil on your back along with the five pairs of dragon wings. And the two of us, of course.”
“It’s all rrright,” said Simber. “The boat will be morrre comforrrtable forrr you anyway.” He paused, sampling the air as he often did, and then gazing in the direction of Warbler Island to the west. “Besides, I’m mildly concerrrned about what’s happening overrr therrre.”
Alex followed the statue’s gaze, but he couldn’t see whatever Simber was able to see. “You mean the ships that Pan told us about?”
“Prrrecisely,” said Simber. “Therrre’s some activity happening that I’m not completely comforrrtable with—ships sailing between the pirrrate island and Warrrbler. It’s out of the orrrdinary forrr them, which makes me suspicious.”
“Of course it does,” said Alex, reaching out and putting his hand on the cheetah’s neck. “I wonder if the pirates are selling sea creatures to Warbler. I honestly can’t figure it out—who else is there to buy them? Whenever I ask Pan, she gets quiet.”
“I don’t know,” said Simber. “And I don’t think Marrrcus knew, eitherrr, orrr I hope he would have told me.” Simber didn’t sound like he had much faith in that, though. The original head mage of Artimé, Marcus Today, had kept many secrets that went to the grave with him.
Alex shrugged. “At least we freed the sea creatures—some of them, anyway.”
Simber frowned. “The pirrrates neverrr came afterrr us. I admit I’m surrrprrrised by that.”
“Ah, but they did—they just went to the palace by mistake and retaliated against the wrong guy,” Alex reminded him.
“Trrrue,” said Simber. “I wonderrr if they’ll everrr rrrealize theirrr errror. With theirrr rrrelationship with Queen Eagala on Warrrblerrr, I imagine they will.”
Alex shook his head. “Please, Sim. We’re finally at peace. Give us a little chance to enjoy it before you go imagining other problems, will you? Besides, they would have attacked by now. It’s been months.”